Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell admits his side let themselves down in their 32-20 loss to the Scarlets on Saturday in the United Rugby Championship.
Despite being loaded with their high-profile Springboks, Powell’s men failed to deliver in a disjointed performance, putting more pressure on their race for play-off qualification.
Scarlets fly-half Sam Costelow put the Durbanites away with a stunning kicking performance, including six penalties and two conversions.
Not good enough
Powell admitted the Sharks only have themselves to blame for their loss and believes they gave the Scarlets too much to work with.
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“It was obviously a disappointing performance from us and the result as well,” Powell said after the game.
“It was again a game where we let ourselves down because of our ill-discipline. Again, [we conceded] too many penalties that we put ourselves under pressure.
“We also had unforced errors. We knew coming into this game that Scarlets were feeding off those opportunities and those scraps, and unfortunately, we gave them those scraps and they scored two of their tries off our mistakes.
“All-round not good enough, not clinical enough in this game and we’ve only got ourselves to blame.”
The loss leaves the side in eighth place on the table with two rounds of the regular season to go against Benetton and Munster at home.
Champions Cup ahead
The Sharks shift their attention to Munster this weekend in the Champions Cup as the Irish province makes the trip to Durban for the last 16 clash.
“I also think it was a very individualistic performance by us. It feels like the guys tried hard individually but we didn’t try hard as a team,” the Sharks boss said.
“We will have to come together as a team over the next three or four days and make sure we bring a team performance against Munster and not an individualistic one.”
All eyes will be on the Sharks, who are under more and more pressure to get their Springbok-laden side performing at the levels fans expect.